volunteer of the month tracie harrison
Posted By SLCo Animal Services
June 29, 2018
Tracie Harrison is Salt Lake County Animal Services volunteer of the month:
What brought you to SLCoAS? Roxxy brought me to volunteer. She had been with me for fifteen years, but when her cancer came back I knew it was time to let her go. Without Roxxy I was a bit lost. She was my by best friend and loyal companion. Since I couldn’t bring myself to bring home another family member, but still had a lot of love to give, I decided to volunteer. I contacted my local shelter and was told they only had space for two volunteers in their center and no openings for volunteers with them. I looked online and found SLCoAS! I am so happy I did.
What is your favorite thing about volunteering? Playing with the animals of course! Really it is seeing the different personalities of each dog I take out. Do they like to play with a ball? Do they prefer a rope toy or something that makes noise? It is fun to try and figure out what type of toys or treats they like. I also enjoy feeding the rabbits and looking in the barn to see what new animals come in. I laugh when I think of someone misplacing their goat or chicken. How do these animals become strays anyways?
What do you like to do in your spare time? Wow spare time??? What’s that? I have been in school for the past 6 years. Between school, work, family and volunteering I don’t have a lot of time. Since graduating from the U of U in May, I now get to put away the textbooks and read for fun. I enjoy reading historical accounts of the Revolutionary War, both World Wars and biographies of our past Presidents. I enjoy the outdoors and love to garden. I bring in as much produce from my garden for the rabbits to eat. They love my parsley!
Tell us about your family and fur kiddos: Ha, I am an empty nester. I am also an aunt to two nephews a niece and two fur kiddos. One was adopted for the center a few months ago.!
What advice do you have for new SLCoAS volunteers? I would say to ask questions, if you see you want to do more just ask. There are many other opportunities to help in the center.
Do you have a favorite adoption story? I don’t have a favorite adoption story really. I have favorite dogs that I am happy to see get adopted. One was Sage, she was a blue gray pitty that was featured on a prior newsletter. She has such a fun personality and was so playful. Another was Duncan shari-pei mix his wide nose was adorable. He was such a happy boy that seem to struggle while he was at the center for an extended period of time. I was so excited when I saw him moved to a foster home and later adopted.
Tell us something unique about you: Hand quilting. I don’t have a sewing machine, actually I don’t want one. But I love to sew and make quilts. I love fabric patterns and colors and I get to be a bit of an artist when I am putting them together to make a quilt.
Where is your favorite place to travel? National Parks! Our county is so large and diverse. National Parks are little pockets of spectacular pieces of nature. I recently took a trip to Glacier National Park to see what was left of the glaciers before they were gone forever. It was beautiful and yet somewhat sad to see the changes that have happened in the past 30 to 40 years. The next park on my list is Yosemite!
Interested in volunteering find out more on our Volunteer page or email animalvolunteer@slco.org.